The Georgian public learned about plans for Trump Tower Tbilisi from an exclusive report in The Wall Street Journal. The project is being advanced by Georgian developers Archi Group, Biograpi Living, and Blox Group; Donald Trump’s family will not be an investor, owner, or operator, but will instead sell the brand and help promote the development.
The tower is presented as a possible 70-story building and the tallest in Georgia and the Caucasus, unless the 102-story Akhmat Tower in Grozny is completed first. The architectural concept has been assigned to Gensler. Trump Organization executive vice president Eric Trump confirmed the company’s involvement and described the project as a continuation of its luxury real-estate brand.
The skyscraper is supposed to become part of a mixed-use complex on the site of the former Tbilisi hippodrome in the Saburtalo district. For years, the authorities promised to build a version of Central Park there, but no park has appeared. According to BMG, the land, covering more than 80,000 square meters, is still linked to the Kartu Foundation founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili, and the Trump Tower project has not yet been submitted to Tbilisi City Hall.
The article notes that this is not the first attempt to connect Georgia to the Trump brand. In 2011–2012, under Mikheil Saakashvili, Trump Organization reached an agreement on a tower in Batumi, but the plan was abandoned after the change of power. At the time, Bidzina Ivanishvili called the sale of Trump’s name a “trick” and stressed that the American side was not investing its own money.
Now, opposition figures and analysts argue that the substance has not changed: the project may work as a commercial franchise, but by itself it does not mean better relations between Tbilisi and Washington and does not reduce the risk of sanctions. Against that backdrop, criticism of the Georgian Dream authorities continues in the United States, and many in Georgia see the Trump Tower announcement primarily as a political and propaganda move.